Marginal Gains

Cornish_mum

Happy Christmas! I hope everyone is safe and well.

On Monday when the little CMs were at holiday club I managed to sort out our tax situation, was all good. I owed nothing and didn’t need to self-assess as the people I have been doing extra jobs for had registered me for PAYE and I was already covered.  They didn’t send me the paperwork but they had sent it to HMRC. I used the HMRC telephone help number and it was really useful. We did MrCMs calculations and he also didn’t need to do a self-assessment for similar reasons. 

Also we finally got to the bottom of his current K tax-code. His second job is paid quarterly but HMRC thought it was the monthly amount so have hugely over estimated his income for the year; so issued the K tax code to his first employer to use. He decided just to let it run as his income is variable and he can’t prove what it will be this year but he should be due a significant refund.  

We made our Christmas wreath from Christmas tree off cuts, pine cones and ivy.  DD and DS helped a bit but they complained it was too spiky. We have been on a few walks, lots of zoom calls and attended a live-stream Christmas Panto which was really fun. The kids have enjoyed playing with their Christmas presents and DD has spent a lot of time dressing up, (Angel on Christmas Eve, Queen Elsa on Christmas Day and a Dinosaur Queen on Boxing Day.)

This week I baked mince-pies, almond biscuits, panforte, and chocolate cupcakes with DD and made chocolate truffles for us. I also finally iced the Christmas cake. 

There were a few substitutions in our big Christmas shop but nothing I couldn’t improvise my way out of. It came to £140 after I had traded in some nectar points.

 I am hoping to spend nothing further until the end of the year (apart from some fresh veggies and fruits) and car parking for nature walks. We have a lot of leftovers and I have meal planned to use it all up. 

MrCM took DS to get their haircut first thing on the 23rd. They didn’t have to queue and were all done in 30 minutes and were both really pleased to have gone.  It was just in the nick of time as we went into Tier4 on Boxing Day. 

I hope everyone is having as nice as Christmas as possible given all the disruptions.

Grogged

Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all!

debtfreeoneday

Good point about the haircut. Might try to get DS in this week. Not sure he can take much more of my clipping. 

becky170

It sounds like you had a lovely Christmas. Glad your DS managed to get a haircut in the nick of time before tier 4 came in! Which online panto did you watch? 

Cornish_mum

Hi Becky, we saw ‘Once upon aPantomine” Anton Benson Productions; it was a bit close to the wire (smut-wise) a couple of times but was good and worked well IT wise. It’s not very local to us but our normal theatres didn’t have livestream options unfortunately.

becky170

That sounds good Cornish. We ended up watching a production of sleeping beauty which nursery had sent us details of. The kids seemed to enjoy it but they wandered off at points. I'll definitely be taking them to see one next year... hopefully by then they'll sit still 

Cornish_mum

Year End Review. Like everyone, 2020 was quite different to what I expected but we had a good year despite everything.

Fun goals completed

MrCMs big birthday weekend and trip to Cromer.

Fun goals cancelled

April EuroDisney (this we actually cancelled because MrCM couldn’t take the time required off work before the pandemic hit).  Our April overseas trip to see relatives was cancelled because of Covid, as was our planned trip to London Zoo.

Fun goals substituted (including some that missed it off the original list)

DS birthday party (zoom scavenger hunt); DD birthday party (zoom games and dressing up party).

Panto trip (zoom Panto)

Cub camps (zoom camp)

Home and Garden completed 

Regular decluttering, always could do better but we have moved quite a lot of stuff on to new homes. I have also kept new purchases to a minimum and have asked for usable (food/wine/experiences/garden supplies) gifts - when anyone asked me what we might like.

Salad, veggies, strawberries and herbs produced in the garden. I have been so grateful for our little back garden this year. 

I have generated a lot of new plants from seed or cuttings.

We did power-washed the patio.

In addition to our original goals we also ordered new windows and have saved 6.5k for this to date. I also bought new outdoor sofa covers and a few other things for the garden.

Home and garden cancelled 

Boiler service- roll-on to 2021 goals

Money completed 

Education fund goal increase by 15k actual 25k.

AVC goal 15% CM 21% MrCM; combined funds have increased 30k this year.

MOPs goal 4k actual 6k; overall capital reduction 17k outstanding balance 179.5k.

Our income stayed constant but childcare and travel outgoings were significantly lower because of the pandemic.

Frugal goals 

Packed lunches and less take away coffee were mostly completed because of the pandemic. 

I only sold 2 items on Gumtree (total £27), I listed a few other items but not so many people are buying locally currently.

debtfreeoneday

Well done on your goals. Esp the financial ones!

PamelaDurden

So apart from hard work, being born into money or having a well paid job how the hell can you pay your mortgage off early.

(tbh im interested in this. One chap I used to work with ate nothing but sandwiches for every meal for 5 years and paid his off. It was substantially less than mine is now however)

Grogged

@Cornish_mum you've done so much this year in a very trying year.
Hats off to you (and the family!).
@PamelaDurden I'd suggest starting your own thread as you'll get lots of advice and thoughts, many not involving a sandwich diet...
It really boils down to three things - knowing your current position, your end goal or timeframe and then working towards it.
For many of us an easy win is to make small regular over payments. They soon add up.
Currently I round up my monthly payment to the next £50 and every Monday round my bank balance down to the nearest £5, the difference being paid to the mortgage.
There's no magic, it just takes time, patience and sticking to your plans, quite boring once you've started.
As I said, start a thread and everyone will chip in with ideas - both general and tailored to the information you share about you, your plans and goals.
ATB, G.